The first is an epic in The Lord Of The Rings mould, with lead Dwarf Thorin Oakenshield readying his sword in the centre (we like to think he’s fending off an enemy by shining the light in their eyes).

Elsewhere, the token ‘handsome’ Dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner) smoulders while taking aim with his bow, with a soulful moodiness that’d make Legolas jealous.

TOR.net handily points out that the ugly fella at the top of the page is goblin warrior Borg, who’ll no doubt be squaring up for a showdown with a key character before the end of Part One.

The second poster is a little less visually striking, but draws attention to the White Council, and scores points for featuring some familiar LOTR faces:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens on 14 December 2012, withThe Desolation Of Smaug following on 13 September 2013, and There And Back Again completing the trilogy on 18 July 2014.

New Line Cinema has released this epic panoramic character scroll for Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It features several of the main characters that embark on a great adventure that leads Bilbo to finding the One Ring. Click on the image below to see the scroll in all its high resolution glory! The movie hits theaters on December 14th!

Today is officially Hobbit day, and to celebrate, a new movie poster has been released for Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey! Martin Freeman graces the poster as Bilbo Baggin’s holding the sword Sting.

The movie opens this holiday season, on December 14th, 2012. Check out the most recent trailer below if you haven’t seen it yet! How are you celebrating Hobbit day? Do you like the new poster?

The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum.

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

This is the 50,000+ piece diorama of Lord Of The Ring’s elf haven Rivendell built by LEGOManiacs Blake Baer and Jack Bittner. The 30″ x 40″ piece weighs 120 pounds and took over 600 years to build. Well, that’s just my guesstimate, but I’ve never lost one of those ‘guess how many jelly beans are in the jar’ contests.

Hit the jump for some closeups but be sure to check out Blake’s Flickr if you want to treat your eyeballs to some sexy-ass high-res shots.

Thanks to stolenradiowave, who may or may yes be one of those crazy pirate radio broadcasters always talking about conspiracy theories. God I love listening to that shit.

Here’s a couple of great new photos from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey featuring Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. The image above shows the character holding a big badass sword called the Orcrist, which is an ancient Elven sword that was made to kill Orcs and Goblins. The image below was released a couple of days ago. It’s a high res detailed image of the character.

Here is a character description:

As a young Dwarf prince, Thorin witnessed the destruction and terror wrought when a great fire-breathing Dragon attacked the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor. After slaughtering many of Thorin’s kin, the great serpent, Smaug, entered The Lonely Mountain and took possession of its vast store of gold and jewels. No-one came to the aid of the surviving Dwarves, and thus, a once proud and noble race was forced into exile. Through long years of hardship, Thorin grew to be a strong and fearless fighter and revered leader. In his heart a fierce desire grew; a desire to reclaim his homeland and destroy the beast that had brought such misery upon his people. So when fate offers him an unusual ally, he seizes the chance for revenge.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released on December 14, 2012. The second film, TheHobbit: There and Back Again, is set for release the following year, on December 13, 2013. Then there’s the third film that will be going into production soon that will be released in summer 2014!

Here’s the Synopsis:

The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum.

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

The high-frame-rate version of the first Hobbit film will see a very limited release, and may not even make it to all major US cities, Variety reports. The 48fps test footage of the movie was not entirely well received by film critics at its first showing, but director Peter Jackson has stood by his decision to film at a higher frame rate. According to Variety,those who have seen the 48fps version since its initial showing — at which point the film had not yet finished post-production polishing — claim that it looks “vastly better.”

Warner Bros. studio plans to test the market with a limited release of the high-frame-rate version of the film, and then hopes to expand the releases for the second and third movies. The Hobbit will be converted down to 24fps for the majority of theaters, using motion blur to minimize choppiness. There’s no word yet on which cities will be part of this limited release, but an official announcement will certainly come before the film hits theaters in four months.

It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made. Recently Fran, Phil and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie — and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.’

We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance. The richness of the story of The Hobbit, as well as some of the related material in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, allows us to tell the full story of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the part he played in the sometimes dangerous, but at all times exciting, history of Middle-earth.

So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of “The Hobbit” films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three.

It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, “a tale that grew in the telling.”

Cheers,Peter J

We’re pretty conflicted about this announcement — on one hand, more Jackson movies could be a great thing. We don’t want to see this legacy end, ever. But on the other, is there enough material for all these flicks (even with the additional material J. R. R. Tolkien’s notes and appendices). Thats a whole heap of padding. Perhaps Anil Dash said it best: “Since when have diehard fans of a giant fantasy universe ever been disappointed by a bloated prequel trilogy?”

Take a look at ten different scenes all stitched together on one beautiful scroll from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. There’s been a ton of hype around this picture lately, leading us to believe that The Hobbit will roll out the Shire-green carpet this week at San Diego Comic-Con. Hidden in this scroll is the first time Bilbo breaks bread with the dwarves, the barrel escape, and our first-ever look at the ursine skin-changer Beorn (who’s played by Mikael Persbrandt).

Peter Jackson, as you can imagine, has been rather busy lately, but recently good news has come by way of the writer-director’s Facebook page — Yes, that’s right; that moment Lord of the Ringsfans have been waiting so long for has just come another step closer – after 266 days of production that kicked off in March of 2011, both The Hobbit films have officially wrapped on principal photography.

Jackson announced the monumental event on his Facebook page, proclaiming:

“The story of The Hobbit films precedes that of Frodo and his crew by 60 years, and so centers on a brave little Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins and how he obtained the powerful ring at the center of the trilogy. In The Lord of the Rings movies, Old Bilbo was played by celebrated character actor Ian Holm, but An Unexpected Journey and There and Back Again will starSherlock‘s Martin Freeman as a younger and more spry Bilbo who goes on an adventure with a pack of pugnacious dwarves that seek to defeat the vicious dragon Smaug, who will be voiced by Freeman’s Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch.”

The announcement follows recent controversy over the way Jackson chose to film The Hobbit, at 48 frames per second – twice that of the normal 24 frames that most films are shot in. However, he responded to it well, and fans are going to have to either like it or lump it.

Jackson is uniquely qualified to tackle the task of making The Hobbit after the mammoth moviemaking involved in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so we should really trust him on this. The director decided with fellow screenwriters Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro that the film would be split in two.

The first of these, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will open in the U.S. on December 14th, 2012 (with its world premiere in New Zealand November 28th, 2012). The Hobbit: There and Back Again will follow on December 13th, 2013.

There’s nothing revolutionary about this new one-sheet, but there’s something about seeing the venerable old wizard surrounded by that comfortingly familiar backdrop that really gets the gooesbumps going. Perhaps it’s that Helm’s Deep-esque sunlight that does it…

Principal filming was recently finished on both films, with director Peter Jackson taking to his Facebook page to commemorate the occasion. “We made it!,” said Jackson. “Shoot day 266 and the end of principal photography on The Hobbit.”

“Thanks to our fantastic cast and crew for getting us this far, and to all of you for your support! Next stop, the cutting room. Oh, and Comic Con! Cheers, Peter J.” We’d ask whether Jackson ever finds such marathon shoots draining, but from what we’ve seen in his video blogs, it looks like he’s had a ball throughout.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in the UK on 14 December 2012, with Jackson and co. set to discuss the film at Comic-Con next Saturday. Tune in then for the latest updates from Middle-earth…

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